Salt is an American action thriller film directed by Phillip Noyce, written by Kurt Wimmer and Brian Helgeland, and starring Angelina Jolie, Liev Schreiber, and Chiwetel Ejiofor. Jolie plays Evelyn Salt, a member of the CIA assigned to the Russian desk who is accused of being a KGB sleeper agent, and goes on the run to try to clear her name. While Tom Cruise was initially secured for the lead, he was unable to commit to the role because of commitments to other projects, and the script was ultimately rewritten for Jolie.

Filming took place on location in Washington, DC and New York City between March and June 2009. Jolie was taken to the hospital after suffering a head injury on set but was released the same day where filming resumed. The film opened in North America on July 23, 2010.

Balcony Escape: Salt escapes persecution by climbing from the window of her apartment to a neighbor's.

Becoming the Mask: Salt was originally only using her husband as a cover to gain entry to North Korean territory for the CIA, but his rescue of her when she was captured lead to genuine love, which led her to betray her real superiors, the Russians who later had him killed.

Deep Cover Agent: During the Cold War, the plan was to send dozens of them into American society, and for all of them to attack different highly placed American targets on a given day. Salt is one as well.

Defcon Five: Averted: In the White House's bunker, one of the President's Cabinet correctly changes the Defcon level from '4' to '2'.

Description Cut: Peabody, Winters and other agents are discussing how hard it would be for Salt to break into St. Bart's chapel, then we see her crawling along the sewers.

Foreshadowing: The list of Salt's special abilities that Peabody receives on his phone, which includes skydiving, hand-to-hand combat and many other skills Salt proves that she possesses through the film.

Fugitive Arc: Salt is named as a mole by a captured Cold War derelict, making the CIA after her. She escapes house arrest, then reconnects with her Soviet spy comrades. However, when Salt learns that her superiors are planning a rogue operation that will trigger a nuclear war, she works feverishly to undo their plans. This makes Evelyn Salt kill-on-sight by American and Soviet forces.

Gender Flip: The part of Salt was originally written for a man, "Edwin Salt", and Tom Cruise was considered, but thought the character was too similar to Ethan Hunt.

Handy Cuffs: An odd example, as Salt had previously just beaten the crap out of several cops and Secret Service agents with her bare hands. Not that it matters. When they cuff her hands behind her back at the end, she still manages to kill Winters.

Inspector Javert: Peabody, in the beginning of the movie. For all he knows, there's a Russian spy loose, and it's his job to catch her.

Karma Houdini: Subverted - just as it looks as though Ted is about to get away with everything, Salt strangles him to death.

Kick the Dog: After Ted mows down everyone in the bunker and starts talking with the president, one woman pops her head out from behind a chair to have a look around and is promptly shot.

Lzherusskie: As usual, Russian characters are played, with the exception of extras, by non-Russian actors. (though at one point it was enforced: Andrei Konchalovsky told Noyce to pick a certain actor for Orlov because "such an evil Russian character could only be played by a Polish actor")

MacGyvering: Salt improvises a cannon of sorts from several cleaning chemicals, the hollow plastic leg of a table and a fire extinguisher.

Make the Bear Angry Again: The bad guys are deep-cover Soviet agents trying to destroy the United States, and they'll do anything to make that come to pass, including eliminating the president of Russia. In other words, Russians are trying to make their own bear angry again.

Not Helping Your Case: Salt immediately goes on the run after being accused of being a Russian sleeper agent with orders to assassinate the president of Russia, leaving American law enforcement no choice but to chase her.

Not Quite Dead: When everybody thinks that the Russian president has been shot, it turns out that it was actually spider venom that causes paralysis.

Pet the Dog: Quite literally—Salt has an adorable little dog in the beginning of the movie, just so she can show the audience her softer side. Her relationship with Mike serves the same purpose, in addition to providing her excuse for fleeing.

Plot Armor: If pulling off nigh-impossible stunts for most of the movie (including falling from a bridge inside a car, with no seatbelt and back to the panel) and leaving without so much as a scuffed knee doesn't qualify, walking away unscathed after being shot by a rifle (wearing only a light vest) surely does.

Reality Ensues: For the bulk of the film, Salt's rather serious mass/strength disadvantages are ignored in her fight scenes....until she goes up against Winters.

Re Cut: Apart from the theatrical version, there's a Director's Cut and an Extended Cut, each with its own ending (the former has a voice-over implying Salt is dead, and the new president is a covert Russian agent, and the latter Salt escaping from the FBI, and leaving for Russia, where she kills Orlov - the scene with his death in the barge was cut - and destroys the facility where new agents are being created)

Renegade Russian: Orlov represents a group of Communist hardliners that somehow outlived the Cold War and are opposed to the Russian government.

Sequel Hook: The FBI chief frees Salt, on the promise she'll hunt the rest of the KAs..

Shoot the Shaggy Dog: The first half of the movie. After desperately searching for her husband, she finds him...only to be forced to stand there and watch him die as a test of loyalty. Granted, it's what opens up the second half of the plot, and in a way it nicely averts A Million Is a Statistic and Protagonist-Centered Morality (since it could be interpreted that her actions - or inactions - mean she believes that preventing Orlov's plans to start a world war is more important than saving Mike. Even so, it did seem to undermine the first half of the movie.

When Ted reveals his true colors by shooting down most of the President's Cabinet in the bunker, the National Security Adviser is gunned down after stating his position in a futile attempt to be spared ala Air Force One, in which Russian operatives also killed the National Security Adviser during an attempted coup on the titular plane.

Tomato Surprise: All the trailers imply that Salt is being framed, and throughout the first half of the movie she certainly acts like it. Then it turns out she is a Deep Cover Agent and has been concealing it from her coworkers, her husband and the audience the whole time.

Waif-Fu: Salt has no problem chucking men twice her size around for someone her size.

Wall Jump: Salt does this at least twice, jumping off the wall to kick an assailant.

Who Shot JFK?: "In 1959, Lee Harvey Oswald visited Russia. The guy who returned was an agent named Alek."

Would Not Shoot a Good Guy: If you notice carefully, Salt never kills any of the FBI agents, only knocking them out with darts, non-lethal venom and painful but not deadly martial arts moves. She only kills Orlov, Winters and the other Russian sleeper agents.

TV Tropes is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available from thestaff@tvtropes.org. Privacy Policy